Israel would prefer not to attack, but is very close to launching a strike on Iran to prevent it from assembling a nuclear weapon, says senior Israeli military and intelligence analyst, Dr Ronen Bergman.

He is also the author of the book "The Secret War with Iran”.

“Israeli leaders understand the possible horrendous results of such an attack, the possible intervention of Hezbollah and Hamas, possibly Syria, the condemnation from Europe, the ballistic anger from the US and other outcomes,” he says. “Therefore, if Israel could stop the Iranian nuclear initiative using diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions or supporting economic sanctions imposed by the international community and clandestine operational intelligence means, Israel would prefer to take this path.”

“However, if all of these don’t work and Iran is getting too close to a bomb, then I think that the European intelligence communities and the US – I think they don’t understand how close Israel is to launching an aerial strike on the nuclear facilities of Iran.”

The analyst says Israel may strike Iran soon.

“Iran has already crossed some of the so-called points of no return – and still there is a return from that point. The red line lies somewhere between the point in which we are now, where Iran is already enriching uranium and has closed the nuclear fuel cycle etc, to the point where Iran assembles the first nuclear military device,” Dr Ronen Bergman says. “According to the latest German, American, British, French, Israeli intelligence assessment, Iran is something like half a year to a year behind the ability to enrich uranium to 93 per cent.”